The invention relates generally to multichannel evaporators with flow mixing multichannel tubes.
Heat exchangers are used in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems. Multichannel heat exchangers generally include multichannel tubes for flowing refrigerant through the heat exchanger. Each multichannel tube may contain several individual flow channels. Fins may be positioned between the tubes to facilitate heat transfer between refrigerant contained within the tube flow channels and external air passing over the tubes. Multichannel heat exchangers may be used in small tonnage systems, such as residential systems, or in large tonnage systems, such as industrial chiller systems.
In general, heat exchangers transfer heat by circulating a refrigerant through a cycle of evaporation and condensation. In many systems, the refrigerant changes phases while flowing through heat exchangers in which evaporation and condensation occur. For example, the refrigerant may enter an evaporator heat exchanger as a liquid and exit as a vapor. In another example, the refrigerant may enter a condenser heat exchanger as a vapor and exit as a liquid. Typically, a portion of the heat transfer is achieved from the phase change that occurs within the heat exchangers. That is, while some energy is transferred to and from the refrigerant by changes in the temperature of the fluid (i.e., sensible heat), much more energy is exchanges by phase changes (i.e., latent heat). For example, in the case of an evaporator, the external air is cooled when the liquid refrigerant flowing through the heat exchanger absorbs heat from the air causing the liquid refrigerant to change to a vapor. Therefore, it is intended that the refrigerant entering an evaporator contain as much liquid as possible to promote heat transfer. If the refrigerant enters an evaporator as a vapor, it may not be able to absorb as much heat and, thus, may not be able to cool the external air as effectively.
In general, an expansion device is located in a closed loop prior to the evaporator. The expansion device lowers the temperature and pressure of the refrigerant by increasing its volume. However, during the expansion process, some of the liquid refrigerant may be expanded to vapor. Therefore, a mixture of liquid and vapor refrigerant typically enters the evaporator. Because the vapor refrigerant has a lower density than the liquid refrigerant, the vapor refrigerant tends to separate from the liquid refrigerant resulting in some multichannels receiving all mostly vapor. The tubes containing primarily vapor may not able to absorb much heat, which may result in inefficient heat transfer.